Montreal Croupiers Take Electronic Poker Table Battle to Court
by PokerPages.com
Mon, Jan 28th, 2008 @ 12:00am
Three unions representing 1,450 croupiers at Quebec area casinos lodged a request with Quebec Superior Court to force the board that regulates gambling in the province, the Regie des alcools des courses et des jeux, to address complaints that the 25 automated electronic Texas Hold'em poker tables installed Jan. 18 at the Montreal Casino are illegal.
The croupiers, who have been without a contract since Dec. 21, 2006, are in ongoing discussions with the Societe des casinos du Quebec. The croupiers say the tables are illegal and charmless.
The PokerPro tables, made by PokerTek, a North Carolina USA-based company, do not meet Quebec's legal requirement that slot machines be pure games of chance, said Jean-Pierre Proulx, a spokesperson for the croupiers union, affiliated with the Quebec Federation of Labour. Proulx maintains that poker has a large element of strategy as well as chance, so should not be treated the same as a slot machine.
The union has been waiting for a ruling from the Regie on the legality of the machines.
43 Electronic Tables Already Installed
Besides the 25 automated poker tables installed at the Montreal, 13 have been installed at Lac Leamy in Gatineau and 5 in Charlevoix.
According to Vito Casucci, a spokesman for Pokertek, the machines can deal 50 per cent faster than human dealers, allowing customers to spend their money faster. The union is concerned that casino staff may consequently lose their jobs and that the new poker rooms represent a trend toward more electronic games.
According to a union spokesperson, the Regie has steadfastly refused to meet with them or confirm that a complaint against the introduction of the dealer-free machines has been lodged.
The union filed a complaint with Quebec's alcohol and gaming regulator Dec. 7, arguing that the absence of a human dealer makes the tables illegal under Quebec law.
"We are asking the court to make a ruling that the Regie has to meet with us," union spokesperson Jean-Pierre Proulx said. "They have not responded to our demands, they put our lawyer on hold and said they have no file of our complaint. Technically, the Regie is not doing their job."
He said the croupiers' unions, affiliated with the Quebec Federation of Labour and representing workers from Montreal, Gatineau and Charlevoix, complained to the Regie twice in December and twice this month.
Regie spokesperson Rejean Theriault said receipt of the complaints was acknowledged but the situation could not be analyzed until the machines were opened Jan. 18.
"It's like investigating a murder when there's no body," Theriault said.
http://www.pokerpages.com/poker-news/news/montreal-croupiers-take-electronic-poker-table-battle-to-court--30339.htm

Montreal Forum adds a touch of Dawson College class
Brenda Branswell
Montreal Gazette
August 9, 2010
MONTREAL - Some Dawson College students will have classes this year in a place they probably never expected to study - the old Montreal Forum.
The downtown college is renting additional space in the Pepsi Forum because of an influx of 300 additional students. Dawson is creating nine classrooms in the building, including two computer labs for students who are studying social sciences, said Donna Varrica, a college spokesperson.
Dawson is one of several colleges that is accepting more students for the coming school year. The decision to take in extra students came in June when the Quebec government announced it would inject more than $1 million to deal with the space problem at Montreal Island's crowded CEGEPs. Varrica said the top priority for Dawson was to find extra space that wasn't far from the college.
Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/technology/Forum+adds+touch+Dawson+class/3378079/story.html#ixzz0w9Kr4HzN

Here are some examples that show US based companies that have retail stores in Québec, but don't rush (if at all) to translate their online sites, probably because of the relatively small population base in Quebec vis à vis North America. In the meantime we are cut off from ordering online.
http://montrealgazette.com/business/local-business/retail/blocked-in-quebec-u-s-stores-shut-down-english-only-web-sites-when-they-open-here
Blocked in Quebec: U.S. stores shut down English-only web sites when they open here
EVA FRIEDE, MONTREAL GAZETTE
More from Eva Friede, Montreal Gazette
Published on: November 12, 2014Last Updated: November 12, 2014 5:20 PM EST
Many retailers have closed their sites to Quebec traffic due to language restrictions.
As the invasion of U.S. retailers continues and as the Internet increasingly becomes the marketplace and the research centre of consumers, some Quebecers are getting unpleasant surprises: some companies have blocked access to their websites here either because they have voluntarily complied with the French Language Charter or because they have received a notice from the Office québécois de la langue française.
The latest sites to shut down are Williams-Sonoma, West Elm, Pottery Barn and Pottery Barn Kids, all part of the same San Francisco-based company and all arrived in Quebec within the last two years. The sites shut down on Oct. 22, according to a company spokesperson.
But a quick survey shows many prominent U.S. retailers with brick-and-mortar stores in Quebec continue to operate English-only shopping sites here.
The probable reason: the Office québécois de la langue française, charged with ensuring that Quebec’s French Language Charter is respected, sends notices to retailers only if complaints are filed, said spokesman Jean-Pierre Le Blanc.
The Williams-Sonoma spokesperson confirmed in an email that the brands have ceased e-commerce activities in Quebec for an undetermined period in order to comply with Quebec language regulations. The home pages and other information pages are available in English only, but clicking on the shopping link takes you to a redirect loop.
“We are actively working with the stores in order to find ways to continue to make the shopping experience memorable for our Quebec customers,” the spokesperson wrote.
BCBG, Club Monaco and Urban Outfitters are among other retail brands that block access to shopping or to their entire sites in Quebec.
Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie, part of the same Philadelphia-based company, blocked access to their websites when they opened stores here. Anthropologie, which opened in Montreal in late 2012, launched its French website 13 months later. Urban Outfitters remains blocked. But Free People, also part of the chain, does not have a store here and the site is accessible, either for research or Internet sales.
Similarly, Club Monaco shut its site in Quebec when it launched an online shopping site. A visit to its home page invites customers to visit its store, which is soon to expand and move to a prominent location at Ste-Catherine St. W. at Metcalfe, from Les Cours Mont-Royal. Founded by Canadian Joe Mimran in Toronto in 1985, Club Monaco is now owned by Ralph Lauren and headquartered in New York.
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Proving that not all chair-throwing, plate-breaking, glass-smashing restaurant brawls occur in the United States, a wild New Year’s Eve melee at a Canadian eatery was filmed--and, of course, uploaded to YouTube--by a Montreal patron.
It is unclear what prompted the wild fight filmed by Shawn Turnbull, who titled his above video “Chinese vs Blacks.” The ruckus, which occurred at New Dynasty, a Chinese restaurant in downtown Montreal, apparently resulted in significant damage to the business.
A Montreal Police Service spokesperson told TSG she was unaware of the video, but would seek to determine whether cops were called to the scene of the melee.
In an e-mail, Turnbull told TSG that Montreal cops and paramedics arrived after the fight and “two black guys were getting their wounds treated while Police were kind of asking around. I dont think arrests were made that night because the Asians fled the scene before police arrived.”
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/viral-video/montreal-restaurant-brawl-756092

Israeli consulate to move from downtown to Westmount
JASON MAGDER, The Gazette
Published: 8 hours ago
The Israeli consulate is moving from its downtown location to Westmount.
According to the consulate's website, the offices will move from the CIBC building on René Levesque Blvd. at the corner of Peel St. to Westmount Square by next Monday.
A spokesperson for the consulate says the consulate's 10-year lease in the CIBC building had expired, so the decision was made to change locations.
"This is what suited us best in terms of office space and availability and we took what we could take," said Peter Subissati, the consulate's director of public affairs.
Daniel Saykaly, a director of Palestinian and Jewish Unity, called the move a victory for his group. He said the consulate has been embarrassed by weekly protests held in front of the CIBC building since Feb. 9, 2001.
"We originally started the weekly vigil in the relatively early stages of the second intifada," he said. "We felt it was important to make a regular public statement against the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza."
The consulate's spokesperson denied the group's claim.
"The protests had been going on without any incident and I don't think it ever was a factor in our move," Subissati said.
He added the offices of the Spanish and Brazilian consulates are also at Westmount Square.
Saykaly said PAJU and supporters haven't missed a week since the first protest, and usually between 20 and 30 people demonstrate in front of the CIBC building on Fridays between noon and 1 p.m., waving flags, chanting slogans and handing out flyers.
A counter-protest of Israel supporters has been taking place across the street for the last several years, garnering about the same number of people.
Saykaly said his group will now move its weekly protests to Ste. Catherine St. at the corner of McGill College Ave., to join members of the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid in front of the bookstore Indigo.
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